The Battle of the Marne, by Jules Prosper Legastelois, 1914

Marne Medal, 1914

Around 1900 French artists applied the new techniques of Art Nouveau to medals intended to be seen as works of art, and they produced many rather idealistic images of conflict in the First World War. The Battle of the Marne shows Marianne, the personification of France, flying above the French Army, sword in hand.
This medal was one of a number of French war medals given to the Fitzwilliam Museum by E. Evelyn Barron of Peterhouse in 1938.